Special Boat Service

Share via

“When the storm is over, the weather will improve.” So declares Prolix, a charlatan reader of entrails, during a downpour in Goscinny’s Asterix and the Soothsayer. He’s not wrong, but it is not much of a prophecy. As public policy, it is even worse.

In parts of Britain the rains which began in December have barely ceased. By the middle of this month, Somerset had already received the entire rainfall for an average January. Some villages, such as Muchelney, have been waterlocked for so long that locals have begun to refer to the rest of the United Kingdom as “the